


The Dot of the I

by ETraytin



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: All the Eternity You Want, Episode Fill-in for 4x13-14, F/M, Finale spoilers, Fluff and happiness, The Story Stops Before The End
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-31
Updated: 2020-01-31
Packaged: 2021-02-25 14:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22497871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ETraytin/pseuds/ETraytin
Summary: It turns out that the story of eternity has nothing to do with how it ends, it's all about what you do along the way. A story of two thousand bearimies in The Good Place.
Relationships: Chidi Anagonye/Eleanor Shellstrop, Jianyu Li | Jason Mendoza/Janet (The Good Place)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 108





	The Dot of the I

**Author's Note:**

> I watched the finale of The Good Place last night and spent the entire episode weeping. It was a great episode, but all I really wanted was to see more of the good time, and what four very creative people might do when they can do literally anything. I couldn't concentrate on anything else all day today anyway, so I wrote this very quick piece mostly for the sake of my own feels. I hope it makes you happy too.

For the first thousand years or two, they all stayed pretty close together. Janet created their neighborhood one more time, though this one had all sorts of different restaurants and no sinkholes whatsoever. It also started getting a lot busier as time went on and the tests started working. People were coming to the Good Place again, and it was a shot in the arm not only to the dispirited Good Architects who'd been dealing with the committee for bearimies, but to the residents as well.

Hypatia settled down in one of the little homes along the lake and lost her taste for milkshakes as she rediscovered her interest in humans and human thought by finally speaking with people who she didn't know so well that she could anticipate their words. She and Chidi would spend literal days beyond the green door in the library of Alexandria, exploring the great works of lost literature there and debating philosophy. Eleanor came along too sometimes, mostly to enjoy how cute Chidi was when he was really excited, but she had her own things to do as well.

She learned to fly, like, immediately, and didn't fully land for about six months, floating at head height to the others and pretending like she was tall. It was great! Jason came flying with her often, sometimes Chidi and Tahani, occasionally even Michael, though he seemed a little bewildered by the thrill of it. When flying was slightly less fun (but still pretty fun), she and Jason spent several years designing a go-cart league for every creature they could think of, racing them against each other, and gambling ridiculous dares on the results. It turned out that go-carting with monkeys was a lot more fun when done with friends. Go-cart racing became a very popular pastime among the residents, and ended up being the big thing for like a hundred years. Chidi lost a lot of whatever vestiges of the fear of death he'd possessed by riding in a go-cart with Eleanor on a cliff built into the side of Mount Everest or plunging thousands of feet underwater. (There were some highly experimental tracks.)

Tahani got on a real self-improvement kick, which was by turns hilarious and kind of inspiring, and took it upon herself to learn to do things. Instead of living in her typical prebuilt mansion, she settled into a small bungalow next to Eleanor and Chidi's declowned clown house and started learning to build things. At first she learned from Janet or from the ancient builders who'd earned their way into the Good Place when things were simpler, but eventually as modern architects and engineers started arriving, she learned from them as well. Every five or ten years, whenever she fully mastered a new trade, she'd throw a huge party, knock down her house, and build the whole thing over again, a little bigger and a little better each time. By the time four or five hundred years had passed, she'd become expert enough in all the building trades to take on a crew of apprentices who had the same self-improvement drive she did. They rebuilt her mansion from the ground up, with Janet providing only the basic raw materials. Eleanor learned enough to build a small house, rewire and plumb it, and a fork of a lot about interior design (mostly against her will), but she was largely content to construct her palaces with her mind.

After seven or eight hundred years, the neighborhood looked very different from where it had started. There were skyscrapers and obelisks, pyramids and modern art palaces that put Fallingwater to shame. People opened restaurants of their own and cooked for one another, performed plays and concerts, drove flying cars through the streets and submarines in the pond. There were twenty years or so where pandas were suddenly everywhere and Eleanor never did figure out what that was about, but it eventually returned to a reasonable number of pandas.

One day Chidi came home and announced that he'd at least skimmed all the books in the Library of Alexandria and suggested that they go traveling. Eleanor thought that was an excellent idea, and so did the others. The green doors took them around the world, not just in place but in time, allowing them to spend months exploring medieval Europe, North America before people, Arizona, Jacksonville, Senegal, Pakistan, England, Australia, over and over at different times. They spent years in Greece and Rome, all those places not as they were, but as they could've been in more perfect versions of themselves. They spent a little while, ten or eleven years at least, in Dinosaur Times, a time that was from no particular epoch, but one that Jason had thought up where all the dinosaurs and cavemen and mammoths and sabertooth tigers all lived and there was also a time traveling train for some reason. They all nearly got eaten about a billion times, but it was exciting!

Returning to the neighborhood was exciting too, because a lot had changed while they were gone. The architects, Good and Bad alike, were starting to get better at the testing, zeroing in on what people needed to change about themselves and steering them in the right direction. Sure, there were hard cases and some that might never clear, but things were moving faster now and the backlog in the Bad Place was starting to process quicker. Other neighborhoods had sprung up around theirs, with their own Good Janets (and the occasional Goodish Janet who still wore black leather sometimes) and their own designs. Trains ran all the time now, a two-track high-speed system to let people visit anywhere they wanted, even if they didn't feel like using a green door to just go there. The Good Place was no longer echoingly empty; it bustled with activity, joy and creation.

The other weird thing that had happened was that they'd become folk heroes. Michael had installed their pictures in place of Doug Forcett's portrait in his new and improved office, and happily told all the new arrivals he processed about the reason they were finally allowed into the Good Place. Janet was also more than willing to tell stories about her friends, and what one Janet knew, all the Janets knew, because all Janets know everything. The original residents and early arrivals had all known them, of course, but apparently it was different for people who heard all the stories and had never seen Eleanor smash into a third story window like an errant sparrow or seen Tahani staple her dress to a two by four.

So that was very cool for awhile, too, being heroes and legends. Eleanor counted the time Stone Cold Steve Austin shook her hand and thanked her for everything she'd done as very high on her Top Ten list of moments in the afterlife. Chidi started conducting his ethics classes again, this time not just with doofuses who wanted to stay out of hell, but with real philosophers and the intellectually curious (along with people who just wanted to ogle him a bit. Eleanor attended a lot of classes.) Jason made sure to personally greet every Jacksonville Jaguar who made it through their test, then grilled them for tips on Madden, which mostly just confused them. It was okay, though, because many of the Jacksonville Jaguars were from Jacksonville or had lived there a long time, so they understood. Jason also came to some classes, mostly just to hang out, but he did eventually accept the fact that it was not ethnics class. Chidi popped a bottle of champagne after class that day.

For Tahani, the fame was considerably more uncomfortable. It turned out that she really was friends with pretty much everyone she'd ever name-dropped, so there was always somebody famous hanging around at the mansion, but at this point in her afterlife, Tahani was mostly embarrassed by the person she'd been on Earth and had no desire to return to it. Having people fawning on her with gratitude for saving them set up too many conflicting impulses for her to become accustomed to it. She left the neighborhood after... awhile. It was also around this time that Eleanor stopped really perceiving the years that passed. Bearimies were much longer and easier to keep track of, once you wrapped your mind around them. In any case, Tahani moved into a neighborhood that was just being built and started assisting the architects and Janet who were working on it. It was good for her and made her happy, but it seemed weird to no longer have her so close by.

The one thing that didn't change for Eleanor as the years turned to bearimies and then as even the bearimies started slipping past unheeded was Chidi. She'd worried at first that they'd grow tired of one another, or he'd find a woman who both loved philosophy and still remembered how to use a bathroom and might depart for smarter pastures, but it never happened. They went on thousands of dates, had a lot of sex, like, really a lot, and it was great, but the best part of Chidi was how he was the one person who made her feel quiet inside. Just being with him was good, even if they weren't actually doing anything. They spent time apart, obviously, sometimes long stretches when Eleanor took up space exploration for a couple of decades or Chidi decided it was time to really dig into all the books in Alexandria, but they always came back together again, almost always in their little unclowned house. The Good Place was endless and lovely, but it was Chidi who was her home.

After awhile, maybe a thousand bearimies, Eleanor had lost count by then and it didn't seem to matter much, people they knew started showing up. Chidi's folks were first, because they'd apparently been pretty good people all along and hadn't needed to spend too much time testing once they eventually died on Earth. It was great fun to show them around and watch their joy and excitement, almost like getting to experience it again for the first time. Patricia was next, and Eleanor hadn't even recognized her at first in the body of a grown woman. She'd feared the worst, but Patricia had assured her that she'd lived a long life on Earth and just chose this body because she wanted to be young and able to taste food again. It was a bit hard for Eleanor to admit that she didn't know when Patricia's parents would arrive, and that while Dave would probably do all right, it might be a wait for Donna.

Kamilah arrived in due time after a long life and a fairly brief testing period, but in this world she was Tahani's sister and not the other way around. Luckily both sisters had grown beyond that, and they'd settled in together in Tahani's new neighborhood while Kamilah got used to the Good Place and Tahani learned skills like tile mosaic and hydroponic gardening. Pillboi arrived a little while later, baffled by the afterlife but happy to see Jason and the other astronaut spies again. Jason decamped from the neighborhood for a long time after that, going to show his best friend all the best parts of the afterlife.

Eleanor proved she was a good friend by listening to three or four hundred versions of “The Purple Train to Groovy City” before she just couldn't tolerate any more of Michael's songwriting efforts and pulled him out of the office for a bearimy or two of human fun. That was interesting because Michael's ideas of fun were a lot of things Eleanor hadn't really thought about since getting to the Good Place, like playing board games and eating gross candy and grocery shopping. She showed him how to make paperclip chains, which was a huge success, and they put together and hosted a game show in the central atrium of the Good Place called “What's That Chime?” that gained a very loyal following among residents who watched television. He went up with her to the space neighborhoods and pointed out a bunch of the stars he'd made, back in the day before there were Good Places and Bad Places and they were still trying to figure out what a place was and what could be done with it.

Eventually Michael had to go back to work, so Eleanor returned to the neighborhood for some quality Chidi time and a bunch of reading. Hearing Michael describing the world before the world had made her curious about things, so she started doing some research. It was easy to read when the light was always good and your eyes never got tired and the book you wanted was only an outstretched hand away. Chidi didn't know a lot about modern astronomy so he read along with her, both of them learning something at the same time, and that was especially good. When they'd read all the books about astronomy (and most of the ones about astrology, at Eleanor's insistence) and talked to all the astronomers they could find, she felt pretty satisfied that she knew things about the stars now. It was nice, but she was getting tired of reading. Luckily, it was around then that Jason came back to the neighborhood.

She tried go-carts with Jason again but those were boring, and even flying wasn't that much fun after all this time. Instead they went on all the crazy adventures they could think of, skydiving with and without parachutes, skiing off cliffs, making themselves really fast and heavy so they could run across the bottom of the ocean where the sea monsters were. Eleanor pulled Chidi along on some of those adventures too, which was hilarious, and even Tahani when she wasn't busy training dogs to pack suitcases or koalas to perform turndown service. Adventuring all together again was great, and took the edge off the realization that doing dangerous things wasn't as exciting when there was no possibility of any consequence greater than embarrassment. That was okay, there were lots of other things to do, and they had all the time in the world.

Things settled down for a long while. Jason's dad finally made it to the Good Place, which was a little surprising but nice, and he and Jason took to spending days at a time playing Madden together on the jumbotron at their favorite stadium, with Janet sometimes cheering them on or taking a turn to help correct some grievous fumble. It was the happiest Eleanor had ever seen Jason, and Janet seemed to be having a good time too, so more power to them. The old neighborhood was getting awfully full and busy by this time, and both Eleanor and Chidi thought they might like a little more peace and quiet. They moved to the outskirts of the neighborhood, right on the edge of a landscape that stretched into forever. Eleanor learned how to cook. Chidi learned to play the drums. They had a lot more sex. He settled in to read more of all the books there were, while she visited all their friends and all the places she liked, playing games and going to parties, watching plays and meeting all the famous people she'd ever tabloid-stalked (who weren't still waiting to get in.) She hung out at Tahani's new place for a number of years while Tahani learned poultry farming, partly because she liked the geese but mostly because she wanted to be with her best friend. She got to know Kamilah too, who wasn't half bad and actually was a very good singer. When Tahani moved on to fish farming Eleanor headed out and took up acting, which was surprisingly fun. She starred in a couple of Shakespeare plays, but really who hadn't by that point, and learned some very kickass makeup tricks. She and Chidi took a romantic trip around the world, reenacting all Eleanor's favorite kissing scenes. Time passed.

The Good Place got bigger and bigger, and ever more self-sustaining. It had become clear that the plan was working, that people were successfully transitioning out of the Bad Place, and that they were happier in the Good Place. Most of the oldest residents had gone through the door already, Hypatia among them, and a few more trickled out every bearimy. The door wasn't something the new residents were told about right away; the idea of eternity didn't even get scary for most of them for a very long time. It was only when they started to wonder, started to worry, that someone would clue them in that it wasn't forever, it was only for as long as you wanted. Eleanor attended goodbye parties for a few people she knew and wondered if she'd ever reach the point where she wasn't happy being happy anymore. It seemed too weird.

Speaking of weird shirt, Eleanor's mom arrived in the Good Place. It had taken Donna Shellstrop a very long time to work her way through the tests, and when she did she was a different woman. Still Arizona through and through, still a woman who enjoyed her alcohol and bad TV, but also someone who had learned to regret the pain she had caused and the responsibilities she had shirked. As it turned out, Eleanor didn't even see her mom for months after she arrived because she and Chidi were having an especially long nap and then spending some time in bed. It was easy for time to slip away in the Good Place. Even after Eleanor returned to her outside pursuits, though, she didn't know Donna was there until Michael mentioned it. Everybody knew where she and Chidi lived, so if Donna hadn't stopped by, it wasn't because she didn't know the address. Eleanor didn't know what to think of that.

They eventually ran into each other in the arcade, where Eleanor was perfecting her skeeball game and Donna had joined a bowling league. It was intensely awkward for about thirty seconds, before Donna had started to cry and admitted that she didn't think Eleanor could or should forgive her for the miserable start in life she'd gotten. When she'd learned empathy during her bearimies of testing, she'd also learned about shame, and the sort of remorse that could overshadow even the joy of the Good Place. There was an Eleanor from a very long time ago who'd have been delighted to see her mother humbled, groveling even, and finally aware of every ounce of pain she'd caused, but this Eleanor had come a very long way from that. She hugged her mother and told her there was all the time in the world to make up for everything.

After that came a lot of family time. It wasn't easy for even an enlightened Eleanor to pick apart her relationship with her mom (her dad still hadn't arrived) and rebuild it into something new and better, but she'd been making herself better for what felt like an eternity already, and this was just another step. Her mom hit it off surprisingly well with Chidi's folks, who also liked to bowl, and they all spent time visiting every theme park Eleanor had wanted to go to as a kid and Chidi had been too afraid to contemplate. It turned out that Chidi really liked roller coasters when he tried them, because they were fast and exciting and much less scary than Eleanor driving a go-cart. Eleanor eventually learned more about what her mom's life had been like, and enough about Grandma to wonder if that notable would ever make it into the Good Place, and while it didn't excuse anything, it did help her understand more about a life that was almost unfathomably far behind her at this point.

One day Eleanor thought to ask Janet how long they'd been in the Good Place, and was pretty surprised to realize that it had been over two thousand bearimies already. There was no real way to relate that to Earth time, but it was a lot more than two thousand years when you included all the double-backs, loops, and the occasional trip through the dot in the I where nothing never happened. It made her feel weirdly old suddenly, like she'd come far enough to be in the middle of eternity, rather than still at the start. It also felt weirdly good, to feel like she was progressing through an eternity that had something on the other side of it, rather than just treading water in something that would never change or end. Eleanor knew it would be a very, very long time before she was ready to go; she still had a lot more shrimp to eat and music to listen to and really a lot more sex with Chidi to have, but for the first time she realized that she'd go through the door one day. And it was fine.


End file.
